Merry Christmas Rose
by fanficpenpress
Summary: A lonely Christmas Eve turns into a much less lonely Christmas Eve. Personal histories come to the fore, and Rose gets a very merry Christmas gift. Rose/Scorpius, rated M for mature content in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

December 24, 2029

Rose Weasley faced a tough decision.

Traditional eggnog or straight firewhiskey.

She considered the eggnog – it was Christmas Eve, after all – but grabbed the neck of the firewhiskey bottle instead and toted it to the sofa. Not that tough a decision after all. A flick of her wand at the wireless filled her tiny London flat with Celestina Warbeck. Not Rose's cup of tea, but her wailing matched the general air of melancholy and self-pity in the room.

As she plopped down in her pajamas on the couch and adjusted the paper crown from a Christmas cracker on her head, Rose caught a glimpse of her reflection in the window. Against the black night, her face stood out. She was looking particularly pale today, her freckles standing out on her pasty skin. The hair that she had tamed during the workday had come undone since she apparated home from the ministry. Between the crumpled crown from the under-attended department Christmas party and her sloppy striped pajama set, Rose looked like a prepubescent girl. To top it off, she stuck out her bottom lip in a rather girlish pout. She pulled the cork from the firewhiskey and took a swig straight from the bottle, hating family traditions with all her heart.

As was the rule in her family, Christmas Eve should be spent with in-laws or immediate family, and the entire extended Weasley clan would gather at the Burrow on Christmas Day for their festivities. Hugo was with his girlfriend's family in Chipping Norton, and Albus had begged out of spending the evening with her and was in Godric's Hollow with his parents. Lily had gone to France with Victoire and Teddy and would be taking the portkey back on Christmas day. James was at a Christmas party, and the rest of the cousins were scattered around the world with friends, in-laws, colleagues, and various romantic partners. Her parents were at home, but they weren't expecting her. Merlin knows what kind of compromising position she would find them in at night, alone in their home, on Christmas Eve.

And then there was the boyfriend issue. She had told them last week that she would be at a party at Alden Whitby's house. Which had been the plan until lunch on Monday, when Alden had cornered her at her desk and delivered the news. He told her that he had met a witch at a Nimbus Conference and that she had apparently grown very fond of his "broomstick." Rose had left work early, cried quite a bit, bought a hundred galleons of lacy lingerie in an "I'll show him" mood, and, in a fit, gotten her mass of hair cut. When she arrived at work on Tuesday, sporting a chin-length hairdo, she had avoided making eye contact with Alden and had managed to survive the week leading up to Christmas. After hearing about how happy her parents were to have the house to themselves for a _very_ merry Christmas Eve, Rose refused to pop in for soothing parental words of consolation.

Instead, Rose had gone to work this morning to cover for her holidaying coworkers. In the nearly empty office, she ran into Scorpius Malfoy. They said brief hellos and happy holidays, but she couldn't bear to face him after her most spectacular personal failure to date.

In the past, the two had been competitive to say the least. She knew Scorpius had been watching her every move when she got essays back or tried out for beater of the Gryffindor team. And, she was embarrassed to admit, she had peeked over his shoulder when, the summer after fifth year, he and she had been at the Potters' and the OWL results had arrived over toast. They had been O for O in OWLs, but she suspected that her two "Poor" grades in her NEWTs had been the only reason why Scorpius had been selected to work directly under Kingsley Shacklebolt, while she was still an assistant in the Improper Use of Magic Office. She scoffed at the memory of her "P"s. It really wasn't her fault she had popped a nosebleed nougat instead of a mint before the practical exams and had found herself gushing blood without the antidote candy.

As Rose took another sip of firewhiskey, she mulled over their years after Hogwarts. She and Scorpius had been friendly since their graduation, mostly linked through Albus. They had had lunch with Al more than once, and last year at one of her cousin's parties, they had nearly kissed. She thought.

31 December, 2028

 _He's standing awfully close_. Rose looked down at their two bodies, hers in her nice navy skirt and soft grey sweater, his in black trousers and a blue shirt. There wasn't much distance between them at all. Her tongue felt as fuzzy as her jumper, and she figured through the dusky fog on her mind that the punch was much more than pumpkin juice. She really did exercise poor judgment. Thoughts were coming in fragments as she watched his eyes flick to her lips, just once. He was murmuring to her, his breath cresting and breaking across her cheekbones. She listened closely, but his words made no sense. He was talking about a job in Albania. Her uncle. Something about trees. _Why is he talking about work?_ _He should be kissing me_.

Rose stopped herself. _What's all this kissing business, then?_ She shouldn't be thinking about his lips, or his hands, or his shoulders like this. When did this new factor enter the equation?

 _Around the same time as the alcohol reached critical volume_. Rose surveyed Scorpius' sharp face. She watched the shift in his throat as he swallowed, stopped talking, and leaned toward her, his eyes flickering. They were back on her lips. She noted this before glancing at his mouth, the gentle bell curve of his bottom lip. _This is happening. Just let it happen. Screw consequences; right now let's kiss Scorpius_.

She was going to. She meant to. But just that moment, Albus burst up to them and pulled an arm around each of their shoulders. He was beaming.

"Hello, dear friends of mine. Now, lovely chums, would you like to know who I've just been snogging? Well, my best mates, my very, very _best_ of mates, I have just snogged, in that very corner over there, Morgana Montgomery."

Their moment had gone, and when Al released them, Scorpius just rubbed his neck and "hmmmmm"ed, before scooting away.

24 December, 2029

Rose groaned and slumped into the couch. How, how, HOW was this happening? She didn't even need to be thinking about Scorpius. She didn't need Alden either. There were plenty of other blokes who might take her on dates. _I'm pretty, in a scrubby sort of way, right? And some people like boyish figures! Right?_ As was expected, nobody answered her thoughts. She blew softly across the bottle neck, listening to the hooting. _The dull wind that roars through the chasm of my warped, mismatched heart._

 _Yikes. Maybe I should pick up and move to someplace romantic like Florence and become a writer. Alden can go to hell._ Men _can go to hell. Scorpius can go to he- well no. He can go with me. And we can share a lovenest in the Italian countryside and I can write delicious poetry about the way his hands move across me as-_

Albus appeared with a crack in the middle of her kitchen.


	2. Chapter 2

_Albus appeared with a crack in the middle of her kitchen._

As Rose jumped up and whipped her head to follow the sound, she saw that her cousin wasn't alone. Of course, his best friend Scorpious was with him on this loveliest of Christmas Eves.

 _They're two of a kind. Horrid, nosy drunks rubbing my nose in their merrymaking._

Rose couldn't maintain her foul thoughts in Scorpius's presence though. Not with the gentle way he was averting his eyes from the sad mess formerly known as Rose Weasley. Not with the way he was holding up her absolutely hammered cousin, who was bleeding from his split lip and giggling weepily. Not with the way he shifted in his shoes, clearly uncomfortable about coming to her flat on Christmas Eve and intruding on her self-loathing party of one.

Finally, after stammering something about picking Al up at his parents' to go to a party in London, Scorpius raised his eyes earnestly. "Would you help me, then? He's getting quite heavy. I didn't know where else to take him, but he, erm, he mentioned you might be alone tonight."

Albus drawled sloppily, "Thass righ', poor Rosie izz alllllll alone… An' on Chritmittooo… She'z gonn' enndup 'lone forevaahhh."

"Shut up, Al," Rose sighed. She glanced at Scorpius before motioning to the sofa. "He can sleep it off here, I guess. I would give him the bed, but I don't trust him to keep everything in. Chunks, et cetera..." Rose paused, then registered what she had said. She turned red all over. _Oh no. Oh I did_ not _just refer to puking in front of Scorpius. What kind of woman am I?!_

Scorpius, to his credit, just snorted in response. Rose, red as her namesake, stepped across the flat and ducked under Albus' other arm. She looked at Scorpius "Right. On three."

Together they heaved the intoxicated Albus across the room and onto her couch. Once he was sufficiently sprawled on his side with a bin near his mouth, Rose stepped back and surveyed the scene. She lunged forward again to nab her bottle of firewhiskey and box of tissues, hoping that Scorpius hadn't noticed her pity party setup. He was looking away, as if trying to spare her the embarrassment. _Bloody hell._

They met eyes again. She started talking just as he did.

"So I'll just go then-"

"Would you like a drink? Tea?"

Scorpius grinned. "Er, yeah. That'd be great. Thank you." She led him into the kitchen and motioned to a chair.

"So Scorpius, how've you been?" Rose started as she brewed up the tea. _Ask him about work. Ask him about his family. This doesn't need to be weird! Just focus, and don't say something stupid._

"I've been alright." He was perched on the edge of his chair and had suddenly taken great interest in her kitchen floor. Rose shifted uncomfortably as she poured the contents of the kettle into two cups. Her mind was horrifyingly devoid of further questions. She knew that she could just sit down opposite him and wait for him to elaborate. She could pretend he had reciprocated with a question about her life, and just begin talking. She could leap into his lap and snog him senseless, if she wanted to. Which she didn't. At all.

She tried again.

"Are you visiting your family for Christmas?" Rose ventured.

"Yeah. We're celebrating tomorrow," Scorpius stated simply before gulping down his scalding tea. Rose cheered in her mind. _Conversation! Commonality!_

"Us too. We spend Christmas Day with the entire family, but we each have our own celebrations on Christmas Eve."

Scorpius looked up with questioning eyes. He glanced over his shoulder at Albus drooling on her sofa, but didn't say anything. _Oh great. Of course, now he knows that my celebration consisted of self-pity and a stiff drink. Alone. On Christmas Eve. Dammit._

"So… where did Al manage to get himself so drunk?" Rose asked, hoping to draw attention away from her own disaster.

"We were at a party at Morgana's when he saw her run off with someone else. He completely lost his head. I didn't trust him to be alone, so I grabbed him before he passed out or did something stupid. He told me he could probably stay here and you would get him to your family's tomorrow morning." He paused and glanced at Rose before continuing. "If you want, I can take him back with me. It's getting pretty late."

Rose sighed. "No, it's fine. You can leave him here. I don't want to take you away from your festivities."

"Whatever's best for you. I'm sure it'd be fine if I took him."

 _Fine with whom?_ She wanted to know. She really _really_ wanted to just ask. He didn't have a ring on his finger, but what if he had a girlfriend? Now would be the ideal time to ask, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

He really wanted to ask her. He had glanced around her flat and seen no evidence of a boyfriend or husband or anything, but he needed to hear it from her mouth. Her beautiful, berry mouth. They were sitting in silence in her kitchen, sipping tea, and all Scorpius could think about was how the greatest Christmas present he could ever receive would be the ability to sweep the teacups and kettle off the table, grab Rose, lay her across it, and snog her senseless. But he knew that would be unacceptable, and besides, he was enjoying just sitting quietly with her on Christmas Eve. He had never really known what it meant to enjoy someone's company before he went to Hogwarts, but when he met Albus, and later on, Rose, he found himself wanting to just _be around them_. But it defied his sense of order, of economy; his father had taught him that friendship was a luxury he could never count on, and that he should focus on keeping his head down and his nose clean. He had always been professional, clean, and impersonal. But then he stepped into Albus Potter's whirlwind and saw how Al lived. Scorpius watched from an arm's length as Albus brought people into his orbit, making them laugh and making them trust him. Scorpius went to the Burrow over the summer and listened as Albus talked and talked at night, telling Scorpius about his life. Scorpius watched himself become Albus' confidant. And then, one night, Scorpius found himself face to face with Rose, Albus' cousin.


End file.
